Mark Lillienfeld appears in the left photo taken at Phil Spector’s murder trial at Los Angeles Superior Court on June 6, 2007. (Credit: MARIO ANZUONI/AFP via Getty Image) On the right, an image published by the L.A. Times on Oct. 23, 2019 shows a poster hung up at Men’s Central Jail after Lillienfeld tried to enter without permission in 2018.

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A retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide detective recently rehired by Sheriff Alex Villanueva to investigate public corruption was temporarily banned from the jails last year after posing as a deputy and bringing contraband for an inmate, according to county records and interviews.

Jail officials were so concerned about what authorities described in a memo as numerous policy violations that they posted Mark Lillienfeld’s photograph inside Men’s Central Jail and directed employees to alert a supervisor if he showed up.

“He was impersonating a deputy,” said former Assistant Sheriff Kelly Harrington, who oversaw the jails at the time under then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell. “Then he dropped off unknown contraband items to an inmate, which breaks every protocol in the jail or prison. It’s very serious; that’s why we took it very serious.”

Records show Lillienfeld was working at the time for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.